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Boys as Readers and Writers: Strategies for Their Success. Claire Lenz, Ed.D . Associate Professor St. Joseph’s College. How Are Boys Doing? . Between the ages of 5 and 12, boys are 60% more likely to be retained than girls. Boys are referred to special education 4 to 1 over girls.
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Boys as Readers and Writers: Strategies for Their Success Claire Lenz, Ed.D. Associate Professor St. Joseph’s College
How Are Boys Doing? • Between the ages of 5 and 12, boys are 60% more likely to be retained than girls. • Boys are referred to special education 4 to 1 over girls. • There is a 3 to 1 ratio of boys to girls in groups for struggling readers.
From 2% to 5% of American Children between 6 and 16 have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and of those, 80% are boys. • Boys are 4-6 times more likely to commit suicide. • Boys are 3 times more likely to be suspended from school; 4 times more likely to be diagnosed as emotionally disturbed, and 15 times more likely to the perpetrators of violent crime.
The Politics of the Literacy Gap Title IX legislation was passed in 1972 with additional federal and state laws to provide girls with equality in all educational programs. During the 1990s girls surpassed boys in literacy and almost equaled boys in achievement in math and science. Boys’ needs were not focused upon until the late 1990s.
The No Child Left Behind law (2001) and now the Race to the Top (2009) legislation have increased the emphasis on assessment and accountability, which have made preschool and kindergarten more academic. This emphasis works against boys who developmentally may not be ready to read by age 5.
Troubling Facts About Boys • Boys begin as preschoolers with lower literacy skills than girls, and are less often encouraged to read. • Girls, ages 3 to 5 are 5% more likely than boys to be read to at home at least 3 times a week. • Boys receive most of the Ds and Fs given in elementary school.
Boys comprise the majority of the nearly one million high school dropouts. • Eighth grade boys score an average of 11 points less on standardized reading tests and 21 points less on writing tests. • By 12th grade, boys are scoring 14 points lower in reading and 24 points in writing.
The NAEP, PIRLS, AND PISA REPORTS NAEP National Assessment of Educational Progress (PIRLS) Progress in International Literary Study Reading data was provided for 44 countries. Girls had higher reading scores in all countries (509 vs. 492). (PISA)Programme for International Study of Assessment- Reading assessments given to 15- year old students in 32 countries reveal a gender gap with girls outperforming boys. USA scores reveal scores of 518 to 490. • 2007- Fourth grade girls scored 7 points higher than boys. They scored 10 points higher at grade 8. These results were unchanged for the past 15 years.
Literacy Research on Boys • Boys take longer to learn to read than girls. • Boy read less than girls. • They have lower estimations of their reading ability. • Boys view reading as a “girlie” activity. • They value reading less. • Boys have less interest in leisure reading. • More boys than girls consider themselves as nonreaders
The Matthew Effect In general boys lag in reading and writing skills when they enter school. The gap widens each year. By fourth and fifth grade, the problem becomes more pronounced as instruction moves from learning to read to reading to learn.
Brain Research for Boys • Boys are born with smaller language centers and larger spatial centers. Girls have 11% more neurons devoted to language than boys. • The language area of the average 5-year old boy looks like the language area of the average 3 ½ year old girl. • Boys have more dopamine in their brains, which increases impulsive behavior and the need for movement.
Boys have a narrower corpus callosum, which means less connectivity between the right and left hemispheres. • More areas of the female brain are devoted to verbal functioning, sensory memory, sitting still, listening, tonality, and neural cross-talk than the male brain.
A boy’s hippocampus works differently than a girl’s and therefore requires more time for memorization in classroom tasks. • Boys’ strengths in the left hemisphere of the brain helps them recall facts and to categorize. • Their strengths in the right hemisphere encompass visual-spatial and visual-motor skills. These strengths enable boys in general to do well in geography, science, and math.
What’s the Big Picture for Boys? • Boys are 33% more likely to drop out of high school than girls. • Girls enroll in advanced placement classes at a rate of 36% more than boys. • The percentage of male undergraduates dropped by 24% between 1970 -2005. • Only 44% of our college population are young men.
Physical Development of Boys • Vision- Boys do not see textures and subtle colors as well as girls. They tend to see dark colors and like to use them in their drawings and selection of books. Their spatial preference focuses them on charts, pictures, and graphs. • Hearing- Boys are more attuned to low loud sounds rather than high soft sounds. • Gross Motor- They need much more physical activity than girls, and learn kinesthetically. (Zambo & Brozo, 2008)
How Can We Help Boys Become More Successful Readers and Writers?
Create Boy-Friendly Classrooms • Plan literacy activities that encourage visual-spatial strengths. • Integrate physical activity and movement. • Have students demonstrate their literacy learning through hands-on activities. • Maximize technology for reading and writing activities.
Provide male role models to read to boys and interact with them. • Develop activities around competition • Provide a safe and supportive classroom environment • Look for materials that have well-written male role models in them. • Have available lots of informational texts, magazines, newspapers, graphic novels, and comic books.
Select materials that feature people of different ethnicities, races, and backgrounds that live in a variety of communities. • Boys like to read about hobbies, sports, and other things that might interest them • Boys tend to like books that are part of a series. • Suggestions for series books include: • Dan Gutman- The Baseball Card Adventure Series and the Weird School Series • Daniel Handler- The Lemony Snickett series • Rick Riordan- The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians series).
http://www.rickriordan.com/ http://www.rickriordan.com/
APPROACHES TO LITERACY THAT APPEAL TO BOYS’ NEED FOR MOBILITY • Recognize that boys need movement to learn. Try these ideas: • Circle bean bag toss for providing beginning sound of words or segmenting words. • Wastepaper basketball- Child rhymes a word and then can shoot a basket with paper ball or spongy ball. • Playing games like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Phonics Rummy, Go Fish to learn new vocabulary.
Play concentration to learn synonyms, antonyms, and homophones. • Teamwork- Divide the class into teams. They brainstorm as many words that: (1) start with the same letter, (2) contain a specific pattern (i.e. “at”), (3) have the same meaning, etc. • Pantomime antonyms, synonyms, homophones, and vocabulary from stories and content area units.
Develop fluency in an non-threatening environment. • Use Readers Theater and choral speaking of literature and from comics to motivate boys to read text and become fluent through re-readings. • Use blogs for boys and girls to respond to fiction and non-fiction books they are reading. This strategy creates an online literature circle. • Teach boys and girl how to create Pop-up books.
Permit boys to create their own fantasy sports league. Boys can read about their favorite sports figures. They can make a case as to why these players should be on a “dream team”. • Encourage boys to use graphic organizers for reading and writing to appeal to their visual-spatial strengths. • Use music and lyrics as part of vocabulary lessons.
WHEEL OF FORTUNE ____ ____ ____ ____ _____ ____ ____
ANTONYM RAP Antonyms are opposites. Left, right In, out Antonyms are opposites. Fast, slow Whisper, shout Antonyms are opposites. They don’t mean the same. Young, old Hot, cold Yes, no Stop, go! Wet, dry Tall, short Now, you know that that Antonyms are opposites.
My Bag Strategy This strategy can be used with boys and girls. At the beginning of the school year and again toward the middle, ask the students to bring a bag or another container with items that represent their interests outside of school. In this way you can find book choices that appeal to their interests, as well as group children for literature and book groups by interest. This approach provides insight into boys’ interests especially. (Brozo, 2002)
Methods for Discovering Boys’ Interests • Interest journals- Boys write about their interests • Interest inventories • Introduction of books through book talks • Create a “Guys’ Shelf” of books that are especially appealing to boys. Don’t forget to have a “Girls’ Shelf” too.
Genres that Interest Boys • Humor and Grossology • Horror • Adventure • Mysteries • Informational texts • Thrillers • Biography • Science fiction • Sports • Monster stories • Ghost stories • War • Fantasy • Historical
Teaching Boys to Enjoy Writing • Encourage the use of word processing on the computer. Many boys have poor fine motor skills making handwriting difficult. • Give boys plenty of choices for what they want to write about. • Allow them to use visual cues-drawings, arrows, and signs.
Appreciate the way boys write. Unlike girls, they write for each other, not the teacher. • Show tolerance toward what they write. • Show appreciation for what boys like to write about: • Narratives that have a quick pace • Writing with exaggerations, slapstick humor, absurdities, and sound effects • Open-ended writing projects in which they can incorporate technology.
Create the kind of classroom where boys feel at home. Let them write in a corner or on the floor if it helps to focus. • Make sure that they have varied audiences for their writing. • Boys enjoy using humor in their writing. Give them humorous books to examine as models such as DavPilkey’s, The Dumb Bunnies and Jon Scieskza’s picture books.
Start a boys’ writing club, as well as one for girls to encourage greater freedom of expression. • Since boys have a good spatial sense, encourage them to sketch their stories before writing them. • Let them use Dabbleboard to create pictures, comics, and graphic organizers.
Use Blogs to Encourage Reading and Writing Blogging: -Provides a place for students to respond to literature. -Creates an interactive and motivating reading-writing connection. -Encourages fluency in writing. -Encourages critical thinking. -Encourages cooperative learning.
http://www.21classes.com/ This is another free site for a classroom blog.
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/ This site has examples of different types of literacies, as well as blog for young writers.
Technology Tools http://voicethread.com/library/40/
Technology Tools http://voicethread.com/library/17/ Page 14
Attitudes Toward Reading and Writing of St. Joseph’s Practicum Students
Attitude and Emotional Response Towards ReadingScale Developed by McKenna & Kear (1990)
